A website directing border businesses to mental health services is now live, after a survey showed nearly half of employers and employees were struggling with mental health due to the pandemic.
Albury Business Connect general manager Lisa Hastie said the Better Place website was born after 47 per cent of surveyed businesses felt like their mental health was out of their control.
"What that indicated to us is that we need to get some resources and help around at a local level to give to people from that survey," she said.
The Personnel Group chief executive Tracy Fraser said it was especially important now that NSW was in lockdown.
"The website provides information to give employers and employees surety around that it's OK to feel the way they are, if they are feeling overwhelmed," she said.
"Lockdown and fear and COVID fatigue is impacting everyone no matter how resilient you think you are or have been in the past.
"The longevity of this and the long term impact is at least people know that there are supports out there and they can access the support privately.
"It's going to help the broader community as well."
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Ms Hastie said individuals' mental health was interrelated with business health and it was important address business health holistically.
"People who are feeling better are more productive, more engaged, and that creates better outcomes for people in business," she said.
A follow up survey is planned for later on in the year to see how employers and employees are feeling and how they've adapted to COVID-19 forced changes.
Ms Fraser said until NSW went into it'd current lockdown, she would have said the community there was faring better.
"There was a sense of recovery, but I think now for regional NSW this has come as a big shock," she said.
"Regional Victoria not so much, because it's a smaller state and they get pulled in and out with metro, but this is the first time that regional NSW has been pulled in line with what's happening in Sydney."
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Victoria Ellis
Victoria Ellis grew up on the Border and loves reporting for her home community. She is a University of Wollongong Journalism graduate. In 2018 Victoria was awarded the Bruce Gordon Scholarship for Journalism and completed a 10 week internship with WIN News Illawarra. In 2019 she was awarded The Border Mail's Cameron Thompson Scholarship, where she completed a three week internship, before taking up ongoing employment in 2021.
Victoria Ellis grew up on the Border and loves reporting for her home community. She is a University of Wollongong Journalism graduate. In 2018 Victoria was awarded the Bruce Gordon Scholarship for Journalism and completed a 10 week internship with WIN News Illawarra. In 2019 she was awarded The Border Mail's Cameron Thompson Scholarship, where she completed a three week internship, before taking up ongoing employment in 2021.
